


you saw her bathing (on the roof)

by the_gayest_witch (perfection_located)



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017), The Worst Witch - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, First Kiss, Mutual Pining, Pining, Summer Solstice, Useless Lesbians
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2019-04-20 11:30:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14260014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perfection_located/pseuds/the_gayest_witch
Summary: Pippa thought that Hecate looked like a goddess.Then she saw Pippa, and the soft, bashful smile that broke across her face shattered any illusion of otherhood. She looked so heartbreakingly human, in that moment.***a triad, on pining and confessions





	you saw her bathing (on the roof)

**Author's Note:**

> i was listening to hallelujah by leonard cohen and idk i just got really sad

_there was a time you let me know_  
_what's really going on below_  
_but now you never show it to me, do you?_

***

Pippa waited. And waited. And stalled for time and wished and wished and wished until she couldn't wish any more.

As soon as the display was over she ran all the way up to Hecate's door and pounded furiously on the wood until her hands were raw and she couldn't see for crying. 

Finally, finally, there was a shuffle behind the door. It didn't open. "Go away," called a hoarse, raspy voice. "Go away, Pippa."

Pippa tried to magic away the door, but it didn't budge. "Hecate Hardbroom! Open the door right this bloody second!" 

"Go away, Pippa. I don't want to talk to you." Hecate sounded robotic, all tight control and emotionless intonation. She sounded nothing like the Hecate that Pippa knew.

"Just talk to me! What happened? Come on, Hiccup, let me in!" Pippa's voice cracked on the last syllable.

"Go! Away! I hate you! Go away, Pippa!" And Hecate's voice, wavering despite the shouting, sounded just as broken as Pippa felt. 

Pippa didn't leave. She slid down to the cold stone floors, back against the door, and cried. She pleaded. She cried some more. 

The door still didn't open. Hecate said nothing. Pippa thought this was what having your heart broken felt like, although she hadn't realized she'd given her heart to Hecate in the first place.

It was two in the morning when Pippa's other friends appeared to drag her off to bed.

***

_i've seen your flag on the marble arch_  
_and love is not a victory march_  
_its a cold and it's a broken hallelujah_

***

They were healing. Slowly, surely, with fresh wounds on both sides, they were fixing what had been broken all those years ago. They took tea once a week, went for strolls around the Cackle's grounds if it was warm enough, bought one another gifts for the holidays, spoke nearly every other night by mirror. Sometimes, Pippa would make a bullheaded remark about Hecate's teaching style, or Hecate would snipe about 'modern witching' in a way that hit just a little too close to home, but god, they were healing.

Pippa thought she'd never been happier. She also thought, maybe, that she'd never been more terrified. 

Hecate was so very kind, some days, so thoughtful and wonderful, and Pippa could feel herself falling back into that teenage love all over again - only this time, it was deeper, more adult, and this time she wasn't sure she'd survive Hecate running away again. 

She still didn't know why Hecate had pulled away so abruptly all those years ago - she wasn't foolish enough to believe that Hecate had told her the entire truth, not with the way Hecate's eyes flicked down and to the right like they always did when she was hiding something - and Pippa was terrified she'd do it again, but equally terrified to ask why.

It was 16 months into their new friendship when she finally admitted to herself that she was completely, undeniably, irrevocably in love with Hecate Hardbroom.

It wasn't some grand gesture or heartfelt words or a confession that made her realize. It was just... Hecate.

They had been playing a game of chess and Pippa had been watching Hecate ponder her next move on the board. A dark brow was furrowed tightly, and loose, long black hair curled around Hecate's shoulders and jaw like a veil, leaving only her eyes, nose, and lips visible. Hecate was staring at the board with concentrated intensity, until she sighed and moved her knight to capture a bishop. "I haven't been this thoroughly trounced since you first taught me how to play back at the Academy," she muttered, bordering on grouchy.

And her eyes were so bright, her whole demeanor that of a disgruntled kitten, and Pippa - well, all Pippa could think to say was 'I love you, Hecate.' She settled for "Maybe you're just off of your game, Hiccup."

Hecate only laughed, shocked at the accusation. Pippa thought she might kiss the other woman right then and there. She sipped her wine instead. 

Later that night, after her long flight back to Pentangle's, this new knowledge warming her wind-chilled hands, she stared into the mirror on her vanity. "I'm in love with Hecate Hardbroom," she admitted to her reflection, smiling brightly for a moment.

And then she came crashing back down to earth. _And she doesn't love you back,_ she thought. Her reflection's expression morphed into one of anguish. "She doesn't love you back," she whispered.

She felt her heart fracture and her fingertips grow cold.

So this is what heartbreak felt like, the second time round. It was so much worse than the first. 

She did not bother with her usual undressing ritual. She merely shed her flying cloak and banished her outer robes. Crawling between her sheets, she curled into herself and hugged her middle, as though that could keep the pain at bay. It couldn't, but at least she felt safer than before. 

Quietly, quietly, she cried.

***

_i did my best, it wasn't much_  
_i couldn't feel, so i tried to touch_  
_i've told the truth, i didn't come to fool you_

***

It was the summer solstice. The sun was setting when Pippa landed just inside Cackle's gates, and Hecate was already there, waiting. She stood there in her black linen dress, which billowed around her ankles in the gentle wind. That same wind was twisting soft tendrils of long black hair around Hecate's face. Pippa thought that Hecate looked like a goddess.

Then she saw Pippa, and the soft, bashful smile that broke across her face shattered any illusion of otherhood. She looked so heartbreakingly human, in that moment. Pippa's resolve steeled - she would do what she had come to do tonight, come hell or high water. She owed it to Hecate. She owed it to herself, heartbreak be damned.

They murmured greetings and bowed, before beginning their trek back out of the gates. 

They walked in silence for nearly an hour, deep into the far woods behind Cackle's. The forest that surrounded the school was full of magic, and didn't always exist in its entirety, but tonight was the solstice, and they were sure of their path. 

They eventually came upon a clearing, fought their way through dense underbrush and past fallen trees until they stepped onto open, mossy ground. The moon had risen high enough by now that its light broke through the treetops and dappled the forest floor. Pippa's breath hitched when she saw the way it dappled Hecate's nose and cheekbones, too.

They knew this clearing, had spent many solstices in their childhood ensconced within its safety. It was theirs, as much as a piece of land could belong to anyone - which was to say, they were guests, but they were the only guests whose presence the land didn't mind.

They worked quietly, laying out candles upon invisible lines in the leaves, lighting them with fingertips magicked aflame. When the moon had risen at last to the highest point above their heads, they kneeled face to face in the middle of the circle of softly flickering candlelight, hands clasped in one another's.

"What shall we cast tonight, Hiccup?" whispered Pippa, loathe to break the sacred, softly breathing silence of the night.

"Our old spell?" Hecate's voice was so tentative, so hopeful, that Pippa thought she might fall in love all over again, might trip head over heels into devotion tonight as though she hadn't already. 

"Sounds perfect."

There was no countdown, or pause to remember old words. Pippa just squeezed Hecate's hands, and they began.

_We turn away from the sun_  
_Our nights grow long and we spill our blood_  
_Even before the winter chill settles in_  
_The moon will brighten from within_

_Here is a blessing to that which dies in the cold_  
_The dead will rise again, bold_  
_Come spring the buds will open_  
_We will testify to the ressurection of the sun_

It was a short chant, and childish, and one that called for a drop of blood spilled by each witch in the circle. They had written it when they were 14 and had been so terribly proud of it. They could do so much better now, but even stumbling pentameter and uneven rhymes worked on a night when the magic had flooded the air like that, and Pippa could feel it cling like static electricity to her skin, clothes, hair. She and Hecate had promised themselves another year, had sworn themselves to another summer solstice. 

Hecate withdrew a dagger and pricked her finger, before offering it to Pippa. Pippa copied Hecate, and as one, they pressed their bleeding fingers to the earth. There was a gust of wind. The candles were extinguished before flaring back to life, flames higher than before. Pippa could not stop her delighted laugh.

Their fingers were already healed, but Pippa lifted Hecate's hand to her lips and pressed a kiss to the once-injured finger. Hecate's breath caught at the same time as Pippa's heart. Pippa breathed in the cool night air, feel the magic saturate her lungs, tried to draw confidence from it.

Finally, finally, she spoke. "I love you, Hecate."

And her voice was so tender, her eyes so open, there was no way to brush it off as friendship, no equivocation of sentiment. Pippa loved Hecate, and she had just confessed it to the moon and the stars and the living, breathing forest. Most importantly, she had confessed it to Hecate.

Hecate withdrew her hand from Pippa's grip and Pippa's heart plummeted. She clenched her now-empty hands, blinked away her tears, and-

And froze, because suddenly there was a cold hand on each of her cheeks, and a pair of soft, warm lips pressed to her own, and-

She kissed back with every ounce of magic in her bones, buried her hands in Hecate's hair, determined to never let go.

Hecate ripped herself away eventually, panting, fingernails pressed into Pippa's cheekbones. "Really? You promise?"

"Oh, Hiccup. I swear on the moon herself."

"Oh. Good. Good. I love you, too, you know."

"Wonderful. Now shut up and kiss me again."

**Author's Note:**

> please come yell your thoughts in the comments  
> love u  
> bye!
> 
> ps the chant is made from reworked bits and pieces of Victoria Safford's 'Walking Towards Morning' which i reccommend you all read bc it's amazing as all hell (shes a unitarian universalist minister who has never once told me i should believe in god, and is a really amazing woman who I've had the privilege to meet on many occasions) (im athiest shes just really good at wording existential crises in a poetic way that makes you feel less close to death)
> 
> pps the book includes phrases such as '“Ours is absolutely, gladly, hopefully and humbly, gaily, a gay church, a gay tradition, where everyone, including heterosexual members and friends, is welcome, where everyone is needed, where everyone’s experience is cherished as a sacred text"' and "I know that if I leave an offering among the SUVs and shopping carts, a branch or shell or little stone to mark the ache inside me, to signal reverence, sorrow, and confusion, I may be charged with littering. I know, and do it anyway" and ALSO 'i will brush my teeth some other time' so yeah shes great


End file.
